Morning Toast

"The latte is homemade, from Francis! Francis! X5, using Illy espresso pod (yes, I am a pod person). I’m not sure if Melkor will approve of my foam though. The bread is Delle Frattoria’s Pain Intégral, bought at the ferry plaza farmer’s market on Saturday. The butter is Strauss Family Creamery lightly salted butter. I always use salted butter to eat out of hand, unsalted is, to me, only for cooking. The jam, or ahem, confiture, is from the grande dame of confitures, Christine Ferber. The one on the bread today is Reine Claude d’Alsace" So Pim inspired me to pay more attention to morning toast. [ed. do you know Jim Leff also makes a point of eating toast each morning?]

If words do not do it, see the pic:



Now, the first thing I had to do, per Pim, was get myself some lighly salted butter. Now, I am both cheaper and way less world-traveled than her. Thus, I got my lightly salted butter at Costco (Cabots). We are, however, always buying jelly and honey, and in fact sometimes we eat one just to finish it and justify opening another. So, I was well covered in that area. Bread, well I've talked about that before. Of late, I have actually been very impressed with the baked on premise breads at the Whole Foods in River Forest. Pretending I am European, I pick up a new bread every day or so.

Today, the bread was Whole Food's round, white "French" bread, very heavy in crust, fine crumb if not nearly as close to a piece of cake as Fox and Obel's superior version. Because I've been partaking a bit too much in that lightly salted butter of late, I used only a miser's share today. Drizzle was Buram Turkish honey, a honey with a decided tannic flavor that makes it seem winey. Coffee was merely the French Press, beans Costco too.